Antone’s co-owner Gary Clark Jr. and Texas blues icon Jimmie Vaughan are among a group of illustrious musicians who will unite as the ‘Antone’s 50th Allstars’ at Austin Blues Fest next month; taking place April 26 and 27 in the Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park. Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Antone’s - Austin’s iconic “Home Of The Blues” - Clark and Vaughan will lead Sunday’s Allstar Jam lineup, while the Saturday edition will feature multi-talented vocal powerhouse Kam Franklin (of The Suffers) and Ian Moore, who just headlined Antone’s SXSW party last week, an event which “pointed the way towards the future of the blues,” according to Rolling Stone. Additional performers at the Antone’s 50th Allstar Jams will include John Primer (Muddy Waters’ legendary guitarist), Big Bill Morganfield (Muddy Waters’ son, and co-star of A Complete Unknown) and 2024 Blues Hall Of Fame inductees Lil’ Ed Williams and Lurrie Bell.
They’ll join an Austin Blues Fest bill that already includes a stacked lineup of performers from across styles and generations: Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Mavis Staples, North Mississippi Allstars, Jackie Venson, Lee Fields, Jalen Ngonda, Orquesta Akokán and Sue Foley among them. For tickets and full details visit: https://www.austinbluesfestival.com
The ‘Antone’s 50th Allstar Jams’ continue a year-long celebration for “the birthplace of a blues revival” (NPR), which “helped put the Live Music Capital Of The World on the map” (Austin American Statesman). Antone’s will continue the party the following night, Monday April 28, with a special taping of Austin City Limits - “ACL & Antone's Celebrate The Blues” - which will feature a yet-to-be-announced lineup of Antone’s Allstars, and will air during the show’s next season. Much of the music performed during the Austin City Limits taping - and the Austin Blues Fest Allstar Jams - originates from an upcoming box set celebrating Antone’s 50th anniversary, with official details on that release arriving next month.
Founded by Clifford Antone as the first live music venue on Austin’s now-famous Sixth Street, Antone’s quickly became ‘home away from home’ for a Mount Rushmore of blues musicians including Muddy Waters, Albert King, Otis Rush, Willie Dixon and B.B. King - as well as a broader tapestry of American roots music. The force behind this all was Antone, a native of Texas’ Gulf Coast region who spent much of his youth roadtripping through the juke joints of nearby Louisiana, where he developed a deep love of Creole music, R&B, zydeco and, above all, the blues. In the venue’s five decade run, Antone’s has continued to define the present and shape the future of blues music, bolstering the careers of internationally-renowned artists like Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Doug Sahm, Charlie Sexton, Angela Strehli, Lou Ann Barton and many more. Today, it remains a vital presence in the live music scene, with its influence carried forward by a new generation of trailblazing artists including Gary Clark Jr., Kam Franklin, Jackie Venson and McKinley James.
